This summer’s big trek was supposed to be through the Japan Alps and maybe a third climb up Mt Fuji. But COVID-19 and the Olympics being moved to this year made that impossible.

So, looking at more local options I decided to go for more 14ers in Colorado.

After doing the entire John Muir Trail last year, I also thought about options to thru hike while I was at it. One of the problems with climbing Colorado 14ers is most of them are day hikes from nearby trailheads and mountain pass roads. There’s only a few that require backpacking to get to them.

During my research I looked at the Colorado Trail (CT), but there was no way I’d be doing the entire 486 miles without taking most of the summer off. Then I found a trail called the Collegiate Loop. It basically combines a section of the CT from Twin Lakes to Highway 50 with part of the Continental Divide Trail to form an East-West loop of 160 miles.

One other benefit is is that the Eastern part of the loop does pass by many 14ers that are day hike-able from the CT. Of course, combining a big thru hike with nine 14ers would be quite a challenge for me and could lead me to failing on both.

Since the Colorado mountains were much more accessible to cars and 4WD vehicles (like my Jeep) than the Sierra Nevada mountains and there were very few instances where a permit is needed in Colorado, I could plan to do various 14ers and the Collegiate Loop (or parts of it) as the weather, conditions, my body, and my willpower permitted.

So, I packed two 7-8 day resupply packages that I could drop off instead of mailing them. My resupply options would be a gift shop at Monarch Crest, a general store at Twin Lakes, and a general store at Mt Princeton Hot Springs. Since the distances and estimated number of days for me to hike between these three resupply points was mostly the same, I didn’t even need to choose where to start the loop before leaving California. I did suspect I’d start from Mt Princeton Hot Springs, but it’s nice to have options.

I did buy a Ursack bear sack to use. You can’t use them in most (if any) California wilderness areas, but it was almost 2 pounds lighter than the bear canister I usually use. It worried me a little that it was just tied closed and had to be slung over a tree limb to hang high enough to keep the critters away. I took my bear canister anyway in my Jeep, just to have the option to use it if needed. My Jeep would be carrying a lot of my primary and backup gear just to adjust to any changes in my plan (that was already pretty loose and subject to change anyway), deal with any emergencies, or replace broken equipment. Since there are a lot of trailhead camping options in Colorado, I also took my old pop-up tent with me.

Keeping my eyes on the weather reports, I headed out before the second weekend in August. It was a day and half drive from California to the area around the Sawatch Mountain Range. I’ve divided my trip reports into several different parts to make it easier to read.

Part 1 – Horn Fork Basin and Mt Harvard

Part 2 – Mt Columbia

Part 3 – La Plata Peak

Part 4 – Colorado Trail / Mt Antero

Part 5 – Colorado Trail / Mt Shavano and Tabeguache Peak

Part 6 – Pikes Peak

Part 7 – Mt Elbert

Part 8 – Mt Yale

Part 9 – Mt Princeton

I put together a Flickr photo album below with the best photos from Colorado for those who don’t want to wade through the thousands of photos. Most were used in my trip reports, which if you read those they’ll give some context for the photos.

And then…

(a few last thoughts)